Electrochemical Treatment of Industrial Wastewater

This article examines the electrochemical treatment of industrial wastewater to remove heavy metal ions and enable repeated reuse of the treated water in autonomous recirculation mode, including in autonomous water treatment systems within smart mobile home infrastructure and its structural equivalents, which is currently one of the most important parts of industrial processes.

The main problem in modern industrial production is the need to use water in industrial processes and to maintain the required level of water quality throughout the process. Because the required water quality cannot be maintained for long periods, spent water is removed from the process and replaced with fresh water that has the properties and parameters the process requires. Because the cost of water is constantly rising, ways are being sought to reuse water resources repeatedly. In addition, requirements for water discharged from industrial processes are also steadily increasing, and before such water can be discharged into the sewer system, it must be brought up to the required standards.

The most advanced technologies currently used to treat metal-bearing wastewater are electrocoagulation technologies. Despite its advantages over older reagent-based methods, electrocoagulation does not resolve all the pressing issues facing water purification processes and has a number of significant drawbacks, which are eliminated in the integrated water treatment technology of the smart mobile home infrastructure. The fundamental advantages of this technology are:

• no need for a sedimentation stage;
• no toxic waste requiring complex and costly disposal methods;
• the process is insensitive to the acidity of the treated water, and the acidity does not need to be adjusted;
• the electrochemical reactor modules are versatile, so they can be modified inexpensively and easily for specific customer conditions (customization) while retaining the core process and design principles;
• the smart mobile home water treatment modules can be extensively and thoroughly standardized;
• the modules can be integrated into any process line;
• the electrically conductive and non-conductive components of the aqueous solution can be separated in advance;
• natural ion-exchange materials, including biological ones, can be used alongside the electrochemical extraction of metals from water.

The economic advantages of the smart mobile home infrastructure water treatment technology should be considered separately.